Ehhhh.... The most prevalent hybrid (at least in the US) is the Toyota Prius. At least until to latest models, they were very slow, with a 0-60 time of ~10 seconds.
>> This is going to be the alternative to going to a doctor that is 10 minutes by car away, that is entirely and completely free, and who knows me, my history, and has a couple degrees.
Well then I suppose they'd have no need or motivation to use it, right?
Many, many, many doctors (including at a top-rated children's hospital in the US) spent 4+ years unsuccessfully trying to diagnose a very rare disease that my younger daughter had. Scores of appointments and tests. By the time she was 13, she weighed 56 lbs (25 kg) and was barely able to walk 100 yards. Psychiatrists even tried to imply that it was all imaginary and/or that she had an eating disorder.
Eventually, one super-nerdy intern walking rounds with the resident in the teaching hospital remembered a paper she had read, mentioned it during the case review, and they ran tests which confirmed it. They began a course of treatment and my daughter now lives normally (with the aid of daily medication.)
I fed a bunch of the early tests and case notes to ChatGPT and it diagnosed the disease correctly in minutes.
I surely wish we had had this technology a dozen years ago.
In general, health insurance companies (at least in the US) are pretty much prevented from using any health data to set premiums. In fact, many US states prevent insurers from charge smokers higher premiums.
Some years ago I was on a small (12-passenger) boat doing an 11-day photography tour in the Svalbard archipelago. One evening, we were at 82' north latitude and I was on the bridge talking to the captain. He said, "we might be the northernmost people on the planet, aside from naval subs" - looking at this map, it's possible he was right.
> So, if I'm using physical buttons, how do I set the temperature to 24° (75° for US-folks) without looking away from the road?
You don’t. Instead you observe it’s a bit too warm and press the down button once or twice. Source: I used to do this regularly when I owned a car with excellent buttons.
> Or set the radio to 106.9MHz?
By pressing preset 6 by feel. Or by glancing for 1/4 second to find preset 6 (which is a clearly labeled button that never moves) and pressing it.
> Or the cruise control to 88km/h (55mph)?
By driving 55mph and pressing the stalk in the appropriate direction?
This stuff was all worked out very nicely in the late 1980s by UX experts who put very serious effort into making cars with an excellent user experience.
I'd put Tesla and GM on pretty opposite sides of this. In the case of Tesla, they actually know how to build good UX and software (and integrate them deeply with the vehicle), so I've never missed CarPlay having owned and daily driven a Tesla since 2018. (I get to use CarPlay frequently in rental cars for work.)
Whereas with GM, I'd rather poke my eyes out than use their software (similar to Toyota's or BMW's).
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